Computer program improves efficiency of officers, security firms

ROCKFORD — The 170-officer-strong private security firm Metro Enforcement has made a name for itself, thanks in part to helping police reduce crime by 81 percent in Rockford Public Housing from 2005 to 2011.

ROCKFORD — The 170-officer-strong private security firm Metro Enforcement has made a name for itself, thanks in part to helping police reduce crime by 81 percent in Rockford Public Housing from 2005 to 2011.

Metro Enforcement Director Larry Hodges is now marketing a new software program called Metro Shepherd. The program is designed to make officers and security firms more efficient by allowing officers to instantly input and retrieve tenant and suspect information, eliminate handwritten and typed reports, provide an account of an officer’s location at all times and reduce liability claims.

Two years into development with one patent secured and another coming, he’s ready to market Metro Shepherd across the country.

“Like the sock monkey and Cheap Trick, this will be just one more thing we can say that was created and originated in Rockford,” Hodges said.

Handheld device

Just as Illinois’ law enforcement community relies on the Law Enforcement Agencies Data System (LEADS) for up-to-date information on stolen property, warrants, officer safety, and missing or runaway persons, Hodges described Metro Shepherd as LEADS for private security firms.

Metro Shepherd is a software program developed by Toby Ragsdale and Chandler Anderson of Iris Consolidated. GPS-equipped handheld devices, such as an iPhone or a rugged 7-inch Motorola ET-1 tablet, are the hardware for the program.

Each officer begins his or her shift by logging into Metro Shepherd via the handheld device. At the same time in the Metro Enforcement downtown dispatch center, a color-coded ticker displays on a computer screen the officer’s status, location and information being typed by the officer on the device.

Hodges said security personnel patrolling a housing complex will come across several people throughout the day.

Some are tenants, some are not, and some have been banned from Rockford Housing Authority property for any number of reasons. To verify tenant information, the officer types in the address and unit number, and the occupants’ names and photos appear.

“So when we are out there identifying people and somebody says, ‘I live at this unit.’ We can pull it up right here in our hand. We know.”

Metro Shepherd also is integrated with the software program used by the housing authority. So every time a new tenant is added to an RHA property, the tenant information automatically downloads into the Metro Shepherd database.

“So the guys have up-to-date, real-time information,” Hodges said.

The Metro Shepherd program also uses voice-to-text technology, which allows officers to speak their reports into their iPhone or into the microphone-equipped tablets.

‘More effective’

Hodges is working with city and county law enforcement for access to warrant information.

“So when the (security) officer pulls somebody up, and they have an active warrant, we can detain them and call the local police,” he said. “They can verify the warrant and pick them up.”

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Because the officer’s whereabouts are geocoded at all times, Hodges said lawsuits that claim an officer was not on patrol can be challenged.

Hodges is talking with housing authorities in Chicago, Milwaukee and throughout the country.

“When they use the system on their properties, all of the information goes right back to the same database,” he said.

“So if you have a guy in Chicago stopped for drug dealing by some other security, doesn’t matter who it was, the officers in Rockford know about it. If he goes to Freeport, Madison (Wis.), Milwaukee, those (security) officers over there will have the exact same information.”